


found a place

by QuietLittleVoices



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, F/M, Gen, Identity Reveal, M/M, Non-graphic fighting, the drama of it all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-07-29 14:51:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20084026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuietLittleVoices/pseuds/QuietLittleVoices
Summary: Sammy had never thought about doing anything with his powers. He’d never felt they were much more than a parlor trick, and one that had only caused him grief for most of his life... and then he met Ben.//Sammy and Ben are journalists-by-day, crimefighters-by-night. Except they don't do that much 'crime fighting', really. Mostly they just try to get by with the repercussions of their powers, with the help of Ben's scientist girlfriend Emily.





	found a place

**Author's Note:**

> Sammy: goes off in episode 89 about vigilantism  
Me, already writing a superhero AU: ...
> 
> Anyway! I've been working on this for like... six months probably! So enjoy!

INT - SAMMY’S BEDROOM - MORNING

Ben knows that Sammy’s in bed even though he can’t see him. There’s a lump under the blankets which were pulled all the way up to cover most of the pillow. Sammy was a burrower - whether it was how he would have been anyway or a symptom of the fact that Ben could see underneath the blanket and all the way to the sheets and everything where there should have been someone blocking, Ben wasn’t sure. 

“Rise and shine, sleepyhead!” Ben says cheerfully, holding out a mug of coffee towards the pillow. 

Sammy groans and starts to fade back into view. It’s patchy and slow as he gradually remembers himself and forces himself back to opacity. He grimaces like he has a headache and Ben frowns in sympathy. 

“It’ll be fine,” Ben says reassuringly. “At least you didn’t get thrown into a wall last night.”

Sammy runs a mostly-visible hand through his long hair, still faded at the ends, and then reaches for the coffee. “Please tell me you didn’t have any of this.”

“Emily wouldn’t let me,” he confirms, only a bit annoyed that neither of them trusted him about this. He got it, intellectually - the last time he’d had coffee had ended badly for everyone, to put it mildly. He’d had to call in sick for two days because he couldn’t stay a normal speed. Ben still puts a leg up onto Sammy’s bed and settles in next to him with one leg dangling over the floor.

“Good,” Sammy replies, putting his free arm around Ben’s shoulders just as Ben watches his finger tips come fully into view. There were still a few chips of nail polish along his cuticles from when Emily had gotten annoyed last week and tried to find something that wouldn’t just fade away with Sammy so she could have some idea where he was in the apartment. It hadn’t worked, but the navy blue she’d chosen had looked nice. Sammy had scrubbed it off almost immediately when they realized the experiment had been a failure, but he’d clearly missed spots.

“I could always just make coffee at the office, you wouldn’t even know,” Ben mutters, mostly to himself because he knows that  _ no one  _ would be able to miss it.

Sammy rolls his eyes. “I would know.”

Ben scowls and shifts to get his foot on the ground before pushing himself off the bed. Sammy follows him like Ben knew he would.

“Is Emily already at work?” Sammy asks, starting to pull out cereal from the cupboard. He left his coffee cup on the counter and Ben debated grabbing it for a sip just to be petty, but he could still feel the phantom ache of not being able to reign his own speed in for that long, so he left it.

Ben nods and accepts a bowl when Sammy hands him one. “She wished us luck, since we’re working on Lily with the new story today.”

Sammy visibly tenses and Ben chides himself on mentioning it. Not that he could have made Sammy forget about it - they were going to see her at work in an hour, and he’d have to work with her for the next week, but still. Ben knew that Sammy and Lily got on each other’s last nerves.

“At least we’ll get to see those pictures Jack took last week of the fight we had in Central Park!” Ben tries, and Sammy’s hackles visibly rose even further. Ben wonders what it could be this time, because Sammy’s always liked Jack - he always seemed happy when Jack came in to hand in his photos for various assignments, always took a minute to talk to him in the break room.

“Sure,” Sammy says, and Ben cursed himself when he noticed patches of Sammy’s shoulders and back start to disappear again. 

Ben takes another look at the coffee before Sammy picks it up and drained it in one go, and resolves to eat his cereal in silence, without saying anything else wrong.

INT - NEWSROOM - DAY

Ben goes directly to their desks while Sammy makes a detour to the break room to grab another cup of coffee. He knows that he’ll need it if they were gonna be dealing with Lily all day. Except luck isn’t on his side because it seems she had a similar idea, as Lily is already there when he arrives.

“Oh, it’s you,” she says with a scowl. 

Sammy nods, pressing his lips together in a thin line and walking past her to the freshly brewed coffee machine. He thinks about dumping it and brewing a fresh pot just to spite her but is too tired to wait that long, so he just pours himself a cup. “Lily,” he returns flatly.

“Jack’s coming in with pictures later.” Her tone is fake-casual as she continues to stir her coffee way past the point of necessity, looking at Sammy only through the side of her eyes. 

Sammy hums in acknowledgement and tries to immediately forget that she’d said that as he takes a sip of coffee. He’s pretty sure that he’s successful in not showing any of his feelings about it but Lily still gives him a knowing look. He isn’t sure what she thinks she knows, but he doesn’t want to find out.

“Did I say later?” she muses innocently. “Hey, Jack!”

Sammy feels himself freeze as Jack replies from behind him. “Hey, Lily. Hi, Sammy! How are you?”

Sammy turns around slowly and pastes a smile onto his face. Jack is - hard to look at, honestly. He was probably the most attractive person that Sammy had ever met in real life, almost a young Tom Welling, which wasn’t something Sammy actually wanted to think about for too long. The worst part was that Jack was just so  _ nice _ (and smart, and funny, and -). 

One time Sammy had mentioned not getting much sleep the night before (because he and Ben had been out facing some bank robber with a squad of weirdly named henchmen) and Jack had offered to go buy him coffee even though they didn’t even know each other that well. That had been almost a year ago, when Jack had first moved to New York and started working with them.

“Good,” Sammy finally answers, the word stilted as it tumbles out of his mouth. Jack gives him a questioning look, as if to say  _ are you okay? _ and Sammy just tries to make his smile look more natural. “I have to go help Ben with - work,” he says quickly. “Have a good day, Jack.”

“Why did Jack just text me asking if you’re mad at him?” Ben asks, crossing his arms sternly and leaning back in his desk chair.

Sammy doesn’t look like he feels admonished. He shrugs and sits down at his desk. “I don’t know. I just said hi then I had to come here. Since when do you text with Jack?”

There’s a note to his voice that Ben can’t identify so he just sets it to the side in his mind for now. “We like the same cryptid podcasts, we share recommendations.”

Sammy rolls his eyes fondly. “Of course you do.”

“How come  _ you  _ are such a skeptic?” Ben asks. “Don’t you have enough evidence that things are weirder than they seem?”

Sammy gives him a hard look. “Let’s not talk about that at work, okay? We’re writing about mutants, which I know exist because their genes have been analyzed. Science can tell us why mutants exist. If your cryptids or whatever exist, it’s because they’re also mutants, not - I don’t know. I don’t know what you guys theorize now, I can’t keep up.”

“I mean, them being mutants is a prevailing theory in cryptozoology,” Ben says haughtily, allowing himself to take Sammy’s bait because he knows that when Sammy doesn’t want to share, he won’t. Or worse - he’ll walk away from Ben. “Of humans or of different creatures. We haven’t been able to observe mutations in other animals to the degree of humans because they already aren’t common.”

“How do you guys explain ghosts then?” Sammy asks, which is his usual  _ gotcha _ . 

Ben raises an eyebrow at him but doesn’t answer right away. “Or,” he adds to the unspoken thought, the  _ just look at your own mutation _ , “that part is just a matter of belief. Not everything has to be backed up by science and facts, you know.”

“I know that’s how it works for you,” Sammy says. “But I need to really see things before I believe them.”

Ben takes his turn to roll his eyes. Nothing would get Sammy to believe in the things science had yet to discover - and Ben was sure that one day, even if it was after his lifetime, science would find out one way or the other - even if he could do things humans a hundred years ago would have considered impossible for lack of evidence.

EXT - ROOFTOP - EVENING

Sammy isn’t used to being the one who was startled by people’s sudden appearances, but he never could get used to the way Void just steps out of walls. Sammy could pass through objects, too, but he didn’t make a ripple in the solid space the way Void did - Sammy’s movement didn’t make the surrounding area smell like ozone and something burning.

“Dude, don’t do that!” Ben says, clutching a hand to his chest, and Void just chuckles. It was weird to talk to him sometimes because he used a full black face mask that barely seemed to move when he spoke, with how the light was almost absorbed by the fabric. That didn’t stop Sammy from staring at, then pointedly looking away from, his abs underneath the tight costume. In Sammy’s defense there was almost nothing left to the imagination, and what he could see was… very good. The guy clearly worked out, and Sammy just. Admired that. Professionally.

Ben zips over from the other side of the roof where he’d been showing off a new technique he’d been trying for climbing up buildings, which had really just been an excuse to burn off energy after spending the entire day at the office having to keep himself slow.

“Sorry,” Void says lightly, not sounding even a little bit apologetic. “If you guys are busy…”

Sammy rolls his eyes, a benefit he got from having a mask with the eyes open. Ben couldn’t have that luxury, claiming that the wind got into his eyes and nose and hurt, but Sammy didn’t have much to worry about. “What’s up?”

“You’ve met my partner, Makeshift, right?” he starts. Sammy and Ben share a look and then nod at Void.

“No offense, man, ‘cause I’m sure she’s great or whatever, but she’s kind of…” Ben trails off, visibly trying to think of a polite way to phrase his thoughts about the other superhero. “Difficult?”

Void nods. “She’s unusual, sure,” he agrees easily. “We’ve been tracking this one groups activity for a few weeks and we think they’re gonna try to make some big moves soon. We - well, she said we could do it on our own, but I was hoping that you,” and with that he looks at Sammy with a nod, “could help us out a little?”

Sammy pushes himself to his feet. “Sure. Are we going right now? When does the group meet?”

“We’re pretty sure they’ll be meeting up in an hour, based off some intel we got, but we can fill you in right now. That might make it a little easier,” Void explains.

“That works.” Sammy turns to Ben. “I’ll see you later?”

Ben nods but looks a bit tense, which he always did when they were separated in this - or any, really - aspect of their life. Sammy wishes he could give him a reassuring smile but his mouth was covered so he settles for a thumbs up.

Void reaches out towards Sammy with one hand. “This is gonna feel a little weird,” he warns, “don’t worry if you throw up after or anything, I’ll bring us out a little way from Makeshift so she won’t see, but it’s still pretty far so we’re not going to make it if we go there any other way.”

Sammy nods and let Void grab his shoulder tightly, fingers digging into the flesh. He stops any thought of that kind of touch in a different context out of his mind, but it takes a second. 

“Just… don’t move,” Void instructs. A portal tears itself in reality, appearing on the wall ahead of them, and they step into it together.

The sensation of falling through the portal is unlike anything Sammy has ever experienced before. He’s used to going through walls on his own, the phantom feeling of something brushing against you in places where it shouldn’t be able to, but this is unlike even that. It’s like the world had twisted around them, dark flashes of places he could almost see but that were obscured. Just half a second and then they were gone before Sammy could even begin processing them. And between all the flashing images there are tendrils of darkness snaking around, trying to reach them. Sammy can’t tell which way is up, so he focuses on Void’s hand still painfully tight on his shoulder. He knows instinctively that he’ll have bruises from it, but is too grateful for the line of contact to care. 

Sammy isn’t sure how Void interprets anything in the flashing darkness, makes sense of any of the images, but just as soon as it had started Void is pulling him out again. He immediately lets go of Sammy’s shoulder and Sammy stumbles, his body sagging into the brick wall of the alley they’d emerged into. “Jesus,” he mutters, breathing heavily with his palms on his thighs. “You do that all the time?”

Void shrugs. “Sorry. Yeah. It gets easier once you know what to focus on.”

Sammy laughs breathlessly. “I hope I don’t do that enough  _ to _ get used to it.”

“Sorry,” Void repeats sheepishly. “When I first discovered this power, I ended up missing in there for a whole month. Somehow when I got out I was in my backyard, I don’t even know how - I was lucky I didn’t end up on the other side of the country.” He pauses and shifts like he’s assessing Sammy, makes him feel like he’s been pinned down. “Do you need another minute?”

Sammy takes a last deep, gulping breath and stands up, shaking his head to get rid of the confusing sensations. “I think I’m good. Let’s do this.”

Ben bolts upright when the almost-familiar sound of ripping alerts him to the rapidly forming portal on the wall across from him. He’s surprised when he hears Sammy laughing as he steps out with Void - not that Sammy didn’t like the guy, because both he and Sammy did, especially in contrast to his partner-in-crimefighting. Sammy just… didn’t laugh a lot, and Ben coveted when he could make Sammy laugh. He wasn’t jealous that Void had managed it, necessarily, but he wasn’t… not that.

“Thanks for the lift,” Sammy says lightly. 

“No problem. Thanks again for the help and sorry again about -” Void makes a vague gesture with his hand. Ben can hardly see Void’s face, given the surrounding darkness and the fact that he’s wearing a mask like the rest of them, but he can hear the smile in his voice as he spoke.

“It’s fine,” Sammy dismisses easily. “Let me know if you need anymore help, alright?”

“Of course.”

Ben zips over to Sammy, unable to leave him for another second. “Hey! How’d it go?”

Sammy grins at him even as Void turns, startled by his quick appearance. “I mostly just sat in on a mob meeting, it was kind of boring. Have you been here this whole time?”

Ben shakes his head. “I did a patrol but then I went to hang out with E-” he stops, looking at Void quickly. “I was hanging out with. Someone.”

“Thanks for letting me borrow him,” Void says, turning to Ben and graciously ignoring the near-slip. Having a secret identity made you more understanding of the weird things people kept under wraps, Ben had noticed, and Void was better than most at not prying. “You guys let me know if you ever need a hand, too. I’ll see you later - both. I’ll see both of you later,” he adds quickly before stepping back into the portal he’d opened. 

“Home?” Ben asks, and Sammy nods. Ben does a quick scout of the area before they pull their civilian clothes over their suits and both of them take off their masks before leaving the roof of the building. 

“How’s Emily?” Sammy asks as they walked side by side down the stairwell.

Ben can’t help but smile because of the warmth in his chest when he thought about her. “Good. Work is kinda tight right now since they had another uh,  _ incident _ . But it’s good.”

Sammy looks concerned. “What happened?”

Ben grimaces, remembering the look on Emily’s face as she told him. The mix of afraid and apologetic, reluctant to tell him but knowing that he should know. She hated to talk about work at all around him but it was undeniably important that he have some idea of things that had the potential to go bad - that had gone bad in the past, pretty significantly. “One of her coworkers, this guy named Frickard, broke into the facility and started a fire in one of the labs,” he relays. “He stole some of the stuff while he was there. The cops got him, no one superpowered was needed, but he was still… trying to be a problem for us.”

“That’s… yeah. At least they caught him early. Doesn’t usually happen.” Sammy presses his lips together in a thin line. “Is she at our apartment right now?”

Ben nods. “She should be. If she isn’t, I was planning to go over, because she was worried I wouldn’t want to see her. Unless -”

“I’m fine,” Sammy assures him. “You should make sure she’s doing okay; I just spent a few hours listening to the mob list of meeting minutes.”

“Did they actually do that?” Ben asks with a laugh, and Sammy launches into a description of exactly what had happened at the meeting. It didn’t involve any minutes readings, but Ben let himself be drawn in anyway.

INT - SAMMY AND BEN’S APARTMENT - NIGHT

Emily  _ is _ there when they get back to the apartment, sitting on their couch with the TV on. She was tense, her shoulders hunched in on herself, and Sammy is pretty sure she hadn’t been watching the TV at all. He wonders how long Ben had been waiting on the roof for him and Void, how long she’d been here alone.

“Hey,” she says with a tight smile. “How was the, uhm - the thing, Sammy?”

Sammy tries to smile at her warmly while Ben goes to sit with her on the couch, immediately attaching himself to her side, and he walks towards the kitchen. “It was fine, just sitting around mostly. Don’t worry about it.”

“Tell me about it!” She orders, almost cheerfully, patting the seat next to her, and Sammy shakes his head.

“It’s boring, I’m just gonna go send some work emails and then go to bed,” he replies. 

She looks a bit disappointed but lets him go back to his room. He pulls his phone off the charger - it’s too risky to take it with them when they went out, since phones were easily trackable - and finds a text from Jack.

_ Lily wants me to take pictures for your project!  _

Sammy can’t help but smile at the second text, which was just a string of happy emojis. Ben was the only person that Sammy knew who used emojis more than Jack.

_ That’s cool _ , he sends back.  _ My articles always do better with your photos. _

He debates for a minute before adding a smiley face at the end and hitting send.

Emily looks like she hadn’t slept, and Ben hates that that didn’t mean much - she usually looked like she hadn’t slept. But then again, he did too.

“Why didn’t you go with Sammy?” she asks softly, tangling her fingers with Ben’s as he fitted himself more securely against her.

“It was a stealth thing. They didn’t need me,” Ben answers. He didn’t add that he wished they’d needed him, that he would have gone with Sammy and Void in a second, because she knew that. As much as she worried about them, she knew that he’d go with Sammy if he needed Ben, and knew that Sammy would do the same for Ben. It was one of the small reassurances that she had about the whole thing, the fact that they would always have each other’s backs.

She still doesn’t totally look convinced, though. It took a lot to get to that point. “Are you feeling okay?”

Ben nods quickly. “Yeah, everything’s fine. No pain!” He untangles their fingers and holds the hand out for her as if there would be anything she would be able to see if he were lying. He’d gotten pretty good at steadying himself over the years, even when he felt like he was about the shake apart, and he wouldn’t be there at all if it had gotten bad enough for him to lose that control. He didn’t like to be around Emily, then, because she just started to look hurt and guilty, and the last thing he wanted was for her to feel that way. If he was really losing control, Sammy knew how to ground him as well as she did.

Emily takes his hand again, turning it over to run a finger along the lines of his palm like she could read something in them. “I just worry.”

“I know.” Ben curls his fingers around hers, letting her feel the confidence he has in his motion. He tries to project some kind of aura of assurance, somehow, as if by the strength of feeling steadiness in himself he could push it through their hands to her. “Do you wanna talk about what happened with that guy at your work today? Why didn’t you call me?”

“It wasn’t a big deal,” Emily says. She tries to seem nonchalant about it but she won’t meet Ben’s eyes as she speaks. “The police dealt with it. It was just this guy that had been bringing home notes and was trying to get some of the chemical information and compounds that we keep secure.”

Ben feels his mouth twist with worry. “If you’re sure it’s okay now…”

Emily gives him a reassuring smile, squeezing his hand. “I’m sure, Benny.”

INT - NEWSROOM - DAY

A coffee cup is placed on Sammy’s desk in his field of vision and he looks up to see Jack smiling down at him. “Hey,” he says, quickly turning back to the coffee and taking a grateful sip. Sammy tries to hide the way his nose turns up at the bitterness, but realizes he failed when Jack makes an apologetic sound.

“Did I get it wrong? Sorry,” Jack saysquickly. “I wasn’t sure how you took your coffee so I just got it with one milk and one sugar. You’re coffee always looks pretty dark so I just figured…. Here, you know what, take my latte. It’s vanilla; I only took a sip.” He stops babbling and holds his own cup out to Sammy.

Sammy lightly pushes Jack’s hand, holding the offered coffee, back towards him, and tries not to pull his hand away too quickly or let it linger when it brushes Jack’s. “It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” he says, giving Jack a quick smile. “I take it with milk and three sugars, I like it sweet but not too cool. I’ll just add some from the break room.”

Jack frowns. “Sorry. I’ll get it right next time.”

“Oh, you don’t -” Sammy starts, but Jack is already walking away with a wave. Sammy sighs and looks back at his coffee cup, unable to stop the small smile that spreads on his face. He knows that Jack was just being nice and had probably brought Lily coffee, too. It’s just hard to remember how nice Jack is to everyone, though, when all Sammy wanted to think about was Jack bringing him coffee in other situations rather than just at work. He tamps down on those thoughts quickly when Ben leans over to Sammy’s desk.

“That’s so nice of him!” Ben enthuses.

Sammy smiles awkwardly. “Yeah. I’m sure he would have brought you some if -”

“If he hadn’t been there when you hit a mug out of my hand and we had to clean the entire breakroom to make sure there weren’t ceramic shards everywhere?” Ben finishes. “Probably, yeah.”

“I’m gonna -” Sammy jerks his thumb in the general direction of the break room, and Ben waves him off to go get sugar. Ben would easily drink a full cup just black, though the consequences would be dire, but he supports and understands Sammy’s need for sweetness.

Lily is struggling with the ancient coffee machine when Sammy walks in, shaking it lightly before she notices him. “I can’t believe you did a coffee run and didn’t ask anyone,” she remarks snidely.

“I… didn’t?” Sammy replies hesitantly. He always feels a bit on edge with Lily, ready to go on defence or attack with any indication from her. “Jack brought this for me. Did he not bring coffee in for you?”

Lily raises an eyebrow. “ _ Jack _ brought that for you? Did you ask him to?”

Sammy licks his lips uncomfortably and turns towards the cabinet that holds the sugar packets, pulling out two and shaking them into his coffee with his back to her so that she can’t see the rising flush he can feel in his face. “He was just being nice. He mentioned he was going to be our photographer for this project, he’s probably just here for the meeting.”

“He  _ is _ here for the meeting,” Lily confirms, “but that doesn’t explain the coffee.”

Sammy shrugs and puts the plastic lid back on his cup. “He was just being nice,” Sammy repeats firmly. Lily doesn’t look convinced but Sammy turns and leaves anyway before she can say anything else.

Ben grins when Sammy comes back and sets a steaming cup on his desk. “Has the coffee embargo been lifted?”

Sammy gives him a hard look. “Absolutely not. It’s hot chocolate.”

Ben tries not to look disappointed but when he takes a sip, the hot chocolate is actually pretty good. “You didn’t make this in the break room, did you? I was wondering why you were gone so long.”

Sammy shakes his head. “I went to the coffee shop across the street. I triple checked that it’s not actually a mocha.”

“That means you took a sip. Of  _ my _ hot chocolate,” Ben accuses, letting fake-anger seep into his tone. It’s hard to be angry with a good cup of hot chocolate. 

Sammy shrugs but doesn’t look apologetic. “Yup. Can’t be too careful.”

Ben sighs and takes another sip. “I guess I can forgive you this time.”

Sammy rolls his eyes and sits back at his desk. “How magnanimous of you. I just didn’t want you to be pouty all morning since Jack didn’t bring you coffee, especially since we have that meeting in… half an hour now, fuck. Do you have your proposal ready?”

Ben nods. “I was gonna do a deep-dive into the people who are trying to get Texas to pass a law that would require mutants to register with the state government. I did a bit of research into previous attempts at legislation and anti-mutant groups that I’m gonna present. There’s also a part about Chief Gunderson’s connections to anti-mutant lobbyists and how that affects his arrest statistics and reports from mutant ex-employees. I even got Troy to agree to an interview, anonymously obviously, about the climate in the office for people who try to keep things even.”

“I’m still wondering how Lily managed to choose the two of us to help on this project,” Sammy mutters as he pulls up his own proposal - about the rise of vigilantism over the last twenty or so years, despite historical evidence that mutants have always existed - and downloads it to a USB. Even though the project was about mutants, he couldn’t stop himself from talking about the wanna-be her who’d popped up a few months ago who went by The Dark. He never seemed to be anywhere he was needed, and still managed to take reckless and unnecessary moves that had endangered the people he’d been trying to protect more than once. “What are the chances?”

“I think we were probably picked by the editors,” Ben says with a shrug, clearly trying to act nonchalant and failing. “We’ve both written articles about mutant adjacent topics. You could ask Jack, though, see if he knows - since he’s your best friend now, apparently.”

Sammy rolls his eyes. “C’mon, Ben. We’re work friends.” Sammy doesn’t add anything about how if Jack asked him to do almost anything he’d say yes, because Ben - Ben doesn’t know about that, and Sammy isn’t planning on telling him. It doesn’t even matter because Jack wouldn’t - “And it was just coffee, which you can’t even drink.”

“Could’ve brought hot chocolate,” Ben mutters indignantly, taking a deliberate sip from his cup.

“Maybe he will,” Sammy counters. “You could always just ask.”

Ben pouts but pulls out his own USB, a stylistic mothman whose head came off that he had attached to his keys. “Let’s just go to the meeting.”

Sammy feels someone tap his elbow quickly as he’s leaving the meeting room and looks over to find Jack grinning at him. 

“I was wondering if you wanted to get lunch?” Jack asks. He drops his hand from Sammy’s elbow but he doesn’t move farther away, his shoulder almost bumping against Sammy’s as they continue to walk. “I have some pictures I wanted to show you. For your article.”

“Oh,” Sammy says, and immediately curses himself internally for sounding so unenthusiastic. It isn’t that he doesn’t  _ want _ to get lunch with Jack, but the idea of being alone with him one-on-one feels about the same as setting himself on fire, and - “Ben and I were going to get lunch. You could join if you wanted?”

Jack’s smile falls for just a second before it comes back in full force, making Sammy doubt what he’d seen at all, even though it looks slightly more pasted-on now. “It’s fine, actually, I think Lily and I had plans, maybe, now that I’m thinking about it? Some other time, maybe?”

Sammy nods slowly. “Sure. Would - maybe tomorrow?”

“That would be great!” Jack says quickly, grin wide and genuine again. “I’ll meet you here tomorrow, then.”

Before Sammy can even respond, Jack is walking quickly down a hallway to their right. Sammy’s pretty sure it only goes to the copy room, and wonders idly why Jack needs that, before going to meet Ben at the elevators. 

INT - BEAUREGARD LABS - AFTERNOON

It was… tense at work, to say the least. Emily had half expected the labs to be closed the day after the fire but that wouldn’t make money. As much as Emily loved her job, she knew that the bottom line would always be more important than employee peace of mind. There was even an edge to the atmosphere that was almost relieved that it was Greg Frickard, specifically, who’d been arrested. He creeped everyone else, and had taken a special interest in Emily. She hadn’t really told Ben about him because Ben had enough to worry about - she’d given him enough to worry about - but he regularly sideled himself up next to her work station and would refuse to leave until she acknowledged him. 

Mary is the only one who came over to talk to Emily during the day for anything non-work related. Everyone seemed to be keeping to themselves as much as possible, and Emily couldn’t tell if it was from a general, undirected sense of suspicion and paranoia, or if it was contemplative. Emily fell into the second camp, mostly - she didn’t feel suspicious towards her coworkers, at least. She trusted all of them, at least with their work. She’d never trusted Frikard, really, but she also hadn’t thought that he would be capable of what he did. 

Mary pulls her out of her head with a hand on her shoulder as she reaches around Emily to turn off the machine wiring away in front of her. “How’re you doing, hon?”

Emily gives her a reassuring smile, or at least hopes she does, and turns back to look as if she’s focused on the thing in front of her. The lab mostly developed medical devices, but sometimes they weren’t allowed to know  _ exactly _ what they were doing, and this was one of those projects. In front of her there was a vacuum chamber with a window showing a metal sphere about the size of a baseball that she’d been trying to implement hardware into. “I’m fine. Just - working. Kind of having a weird week, you know.”

“I know,” Mary agrees. “Did you want to talk about it? I don’t think anyone here will miss us too much if we take the afternoon off.”

Emily wishes suddenly that she  _ could _ talk to Mary. That she could talk to anyone other than Sammy and Ben about all the superpower-mutant things she knew about, had to deal with every day. Even though the existence of mutants had long since been proven, no one could know about Sammy and Ben specifically, and while she knew that her experience wasn’t actually uncommon for the loved ones of vigilantes it still felt isolating. There weren’t support groups for ‘ _ My boyfriend’s a superhero _ ’.

Emily shaker her head. “I’m fine. Maybe I will take the afternoon off, though. Might do me some good.”

EXT - STREET - EVENING

Ben knows that he sometimes isn’t the best at reading people. One time, Emily was mad at him for like, a whole hour, because he ate the last of the cereal she hid at his and Sammy’s apartment and thought that they couldn’t find, and he didn’t even  _ know _ she was mad until Sammy told him. By that point he’d already gone out and bought more cereal, so she’d forgiven him, but she’d still been upset and Ben hates that he hadn’t been able to tell. But even Ben can tell that Sammy is distracted when they go out on a quick patrol around the neighbourhood, and it’s not  _ just _ because Sammy keeps disappearing in patches. 

Sammy had seemed a bit off when they’d grabbed lunch, but he’d seemed to have shaken it during the afternoon - until now. 

Ben tries to get Sammy engaged by telling jokes, trying to relay Emily’s work drama, asking him about anything he could think of - and even though Sammy answers he never seems fully present with Ben. By the end of their route, Ben has finally had enough. “ _ Please _ tell me what’s wrong?” he begs. It’s not subtle but Ben is aware that that isn’t something he’s good at, and Sammy knows that, too. 

It’s the wrong thing to ask, though, because the last thing he sees is Sammy’s startled expression before Sammy disappears completely. “Nothing,” comes Sammy’s voice unconvincingly, at least seemingly from the same place as where he’d just been. It’s a small comfort that he hasn’t just runaway on Ben.

Ben crosses his arms. “Just because I can’t see you doesn’t mean I’ll forget you exist. That’s not how it works.”

“I don’t see why I can’t try,” Sammy mutters, and Ben rolls his eyes.

“Listen,” he starts diplomatically, “you don’t have to tell me why. You can talk to me about anything, you know that, right? But you don’t have to tell me. I just - I want to know how to make you happy, Sammy. I hate seeing you so upset when I don’t even know why, so there’s nothing I can do about it unless you talk to me.”

Sammy doesn’t answer right away and Ben worries for a second that he has finally just - walked away from Ben without saying anything. That he’d just left. But then Sammy’s arm settles along his shoulders and Ben is pulled into a familiar hug. “I know, I just - I don’t want to talk about it, okay? Can you trust me that it isn’t about you and there would be nothing you could do anyway, I just don’t want to talk about it?”

Ben sighs and leans into the hug, squeezing his eyes shut to block out the weirdness of hugging something he couldn’t see. It hadn’t gotten less strange over the years, holding a conversation or interacting with Sammy when he wasn’t visible, but Ben was practiced in acting like it was completely normal. “Sure. For now. But - if it’s something that gets worse, will you tell me? I don’t want to see you like - like how you were when we met,” Ben says awkwardly. He hates to bring it up, but it’s important for Sammy to know and remember.

Sammy pulls away and jostles Ben’s shoulder, walking just behind him so that he knows Sammy is ready to walk home even if he isn’t ready to be seen. “I promise.”

INT - NEWSROOM - DAY

Sammy hates that he’s so nervous. He knows why, but it’s unwarranted. He’s just getting lunch with Jack so that he can show Sammy some pictures. It isn’t anything - it’s practically a working lunch. Sammy wishes that the churning in his stomach knew that, though. 

Jack shows up at Sammy’s desk and Sammy has to ignore the pointed look that Ben gives him, sending him a quick explanation text in the elevator.

“Who’re you talking to?” Jack asks idly, looking as calm and put together as always.

Sammy shrugs and shoves his phone back in his pocket. “Ben. Just wondering what we were up to.”

“Oh, uh. He could’ve -”

“It’s fine,” Sammy says, cutting off Jack because he was sounding uncharacteristically awkward. It was an unusual tone from Jack, who usually seemed so confident when he was around the office. “He brought leftovers from the dinner Emily made us last night.”

“Emily?”

The elevator doors open and they walk out into the lobby. “His girlfriend?” Sammy replies, confused. “She drops by the office sometimes, have you never run into her?”

Jack shrugs. “I guess not. I’m a little surprised, though, I thought that you - well. Doesn’t matter.”

“That that I what?” Sammy asks as they walk out onto the street. 

Jack shrugs again, a bit more dramatically, raising his hands slightly. “I don’t know what I thought, but it’s not important.”

Sammy takes a deep breath, reminding himself that this was a purely professional lunch, and knocks his shoulder against Jack’s, being careful not to linger. “C’mon, man. What was it?”

Jack mutters something and then sighs. “I thought you two were dating. But I was mistaken. Lily always told me I was wrong and I should have believed her, since she works more closely with you. I guess she’s met Emily.”

“Oh,” Sammy says, pausing in his stride for a second before getting back into the rhythm. “Well - no. We’re - we’ve never been. Together. Me and Ben. He’s - for one thing, very straight, and he’s been dating Emily for longer than I’ve known him. And, unfortunately Lily  _ has _ met Emily, and pretty much spent the whole time hitting on her.”

“What about you?” Jack asks, glancing at Sammy for a second before pointedly looking away, studying the shop fronts as they walked past. “Anyone special in your life?”

Sammy looks determinedly down at his feet. “What restaurant are we going to?”

Jack hums almost knowingly and Sammy feels the heat rise in his face. “It’s a vegetarian restaurant that Lily showed me. It’s really good.”

They fall into silence as they walk but it isn’t completely awkward. Jack starts the conversation back up at the restaurant when they’re seated, asking Sammy about the project they’re working on and what he and Ben do in their free time (Sammy struggles to think of something that isn’t ‘run around in spandex and sometimes stop crime’ and comes up with ‘play Mario Kart’). It’s actually really nice, once Sammy gets out of his own head. Jack is just as nice as he is at work, but there’s something about the non-office atmosphere that gets him really talking - he uses his hands and Sammy finds himself distracted by that more than once.

He only realizes after Jack drops him back off at the office that Jack forgot to show him any pictures.

INT - SAMMY AND BEN’S APARTMENT - EVENING

Ben gets back to the apartment to find Sammy already sprawled with his feet up on the coffee table, watching House Hunters. He’s a little bit translucent from not focusing, and Ben can make out the shape of the couch and the pillow behind him. He’s never told Sammy that this happens and wonders if he knows. “You know what’s fucked up is that the people have already bought a house before the show,” Sammy says as Ben throws himself on the couch next to him, curling up next to Sammy who absentmindedly settles an arm around Ben’s shoulders. “They just pretend to debate at the end of episodes but they already owned the house.”

Ben hums and settles his head on Sammy’s chest. “Weird. Emily is on her way with pizza.”

Sammy wrinkles his nose. “It would be healthier to do homemade. And cheaper.”

“But less delicious,” Ben points out. “That’s not important, you know you’ll eat it and my metabolism goes too fast for it to matter. I wanted to know why Jack just texted me asking if you’re single.”

Sammy tenses against Ben’s side and starts to pull away, so Ben reaches around and grabs Sammy tightly, pressing himself closer against Sammy’s side. “Well mine isn’t,” he says, ignoring what Ben actually asked entirely. 

“I said yeah. I didn’t say anything else,” Ben continues, not taking the bait. “Just - he asked if you’re single, I said you were. If you want me to - to add anything, I can. But I didn’t yet.”

Sammy doesn’t say anything, staring at the TV like he’s suddenly completely enraptured by House Hunters despite his previous protests on the morality of the show. 

“I think - I mean, I won’t pretend to  _ know _ why he asked,” Ben starts hesitantly. “He didn’t exactly elaborate. But I just wanted to know if you, y’know… if you were -”

Sammy stands up and Ben goes tumbling forwards, his inhumanly fast reflexes the only thing that save him from falling into the coffee table. He could have stopped Sammy - he would have been able to react fast enough - but there was something in Sammy’s face that made him stop himself. He wants to get up, to hug Sammy and let him know - whatever it was that was putting that terrified expression on his face, Ben loved him more than anything. But he finds that he can’t speak, can’t move, can’t do anything other than stare up at Sammy from the couch as Sammy disappears in an instant.

“Ben -” Sammy says, and the sound is choked and heavy. Ben’s never heard him sound that scared, and Ben’s seen him face down people trying to kill him. He doesn’t continue, though, and before Ben understands what’s happening, he hears Sammy’s footsteps head towards the door and then - fade off as he passes through the threshold.

EXT - STREET - NIGHT

Sammy just - walks. He isn’t sure where he’s heading. He reaches the rooftop where he and Ben had been the other day when Void had come to them, and stands in the centre of it, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths.

The sensation of becoming visible again was one that Sammy had always found hard to explain. Becoming  _ invisible _ was simple - that was his base-state, all he had to do was let go of his control and he disappeared. He had to work every single second he was awake to stay visible. It wasn’t a trick that he’d figured out how to keep going while he was asleep, even after thirty years. It made relationships… difficult, since he could never spend the night anywhere. Even if anyone  _ had _ known - and they hadn’t, Sammy had never told anyone besides Ben who wasn’t related to him, and he preferred not to remember the latter of those - it still felt too… vulnerable, to be asleep and unseen. 

To become visible, Sammy felt like he was blowing up a balloon inside his chest, something that expanded slowly and gained more and more surface area as it went, filling more of his body. He knew that he tended to appear in patches, like paint being thrown at a wall, but it felt like something slow and delicate. It was like there was a thin layer over his skin all the time when he was visible that he could  _ feel _ , a layer of wax that didn’t sit right. He could just snap into invisibility without a thought, but it sometimes took him hours to become fully visible again.

There’s a sound like paper ripping behind him and he turns on his heel, but he isn’t fast enough - someone grabs his arm and pulls and he goes tumbling into darkness. In the split second he has to worry, he’s glad that he’d grabbed his suit as he was leaving so whoever this was wouldn’t figure out who he was. Before he can react, he’s tumbling out into what looks like a home office, crowded and lived in. There were a few mugs on the desk, mostly half empty and visibly cold, and more than a few towers of boxes with papers spilling out. They swirl around his feet as he tumbles in from the rush of air of the portal opening and closing again quickly.

And in the middle of it stands Void and the closing portal on the door.

“You know I can walk through walls, right?” Sammy posits, letting the frustration seep into his voice as he drops himself dramatically into the office chair, staring down Void even as all he wants to do is look away.

Void cocks his head to the side curiously. “Really? I didn’t realize. I’ll - I mean, we’re actually pretty far from where we started, but I’ll keep that in mind in the future.”

“They don’t call me Apparition just for this,” Sammy mutters, forcing himself to become visible  _ again _ , because he’d been shocked out of his control by being yanked into an extra-dimensional portal. “Is there a reason why you kidnapped me?”

“Yeah, actually, uh - sorry about that,” he mutters. Void looks around awkwardly for somewhere else to sit, but Sammy isn’t about to give up his spot while the room was still spinning around him, so Void settles for continuing to stand awkwardly, though he moved from the centre of the room to near the door. It almost looks like he’s searching for an escape, even though he’s the one who had kidnapped Sammy. “I actually - so, I’m having a bit of a personal  _ thing _ right now,” he starts. “There’s this - there’s someone…” he trails off and sighs, looking to Sammy like he could telepathically transmit his thoughts without having to say them - which he can’t, as far as Sammy knows, and he doesn’t manage it in this moment. “There’s someone in my civilian life that I want to tell about all this,” he says finally, clearly having decided on a vague enough truth to use, gesturing around the room. “And I thought - well, I trust you. And Quickstep but - but I trust you a lot, and he can be a bit  _ much _ , and it’s easier to just do this -” he reaches up and before Sammy even realizes what’s happening he rips off his mask. His hair is standing up everywhere and his face is a bit red - but that was Jack. 

Jack Wright, his coworker. His friend. The guy who’d asked him to lunch and was already planning another one tomorrow. Who was maybe - but obviously not, Sammy realized. There was someone that Jack wants to tell about being a superhero, and that’s Apparition - not Sammy - and someone else. 

Sammy realizes that Jack is still talking after a few seconds and shakes his head to try and refocus himself, to stay in the moment. “I’m a photographer,” Jack’s explaining, wringing the mask in his hands as he speaks, “and I know this won’t really - mean anything, since you don’t know me, but my name’s Jack. By the way.”

Sammy takes a deep breath and tries to steady his voice before he says, “Hi, Jack.” It doesn’t seem convincing to his own ears, but Jack laughs nervously, not seeming to notice anything too strange about how Sammy is acting.

“Thanks for - for listening to me. He’s - the guy I wanna tell, he’s really practical. I don’t think he’ll really understand, but I would rather tell him now than have it go a long time as a secret. I don’t think he’ll react badly, but it’s… it’s unusual.” He runs a hand through his hair, making it stick up even worse, and Sammy feels something in the pit of his stomach drop away. For so long, Void had been an unattainable  _ something _ \- a person that Sammy thought he held no real feelings for other than finding attractive, but Jack - Jack had always been something else. Handsome, more than anyone had any right to be, but nice, charming, friendly. More attainable than Void except for in all the ways that he was so completely out of Sammy’s league.

“Anyway,” Jack continues, letting out a rush of air and seeming to settle a bit from the nervous energy. “This is my office.” He sweeps an arm around himself again, indicating the space specifically, and Sammy takes the excuse to look anywhere but  _ at  _ Jack.

“You said you were a photographer,” Sammy says slowly, hoping that Jack  _ had _ said that during his ramble but he can’t remember anymore. “This looks more like a researchers place.”

“I’m a professional photographer - amateur researcher,” Jack admits. “I get my photos developed at a lab a few blocks away. I used to have an in-home studio, but then neighbours complained - and when I moved here my sister vetoed it because she didn’t want the apartment to stink like chemicals. Which is fair.”

“You live with your sister?” Sammy asks, turning away to look at the walls - there were some newspaper clippings, some internet printouts. It looks like there’s a system, an organization to the chaos, but Sammy can’t figure out what it is. Most of them are about mutants - both created and born, news stories about people discovering their powers by accidentally razzing buildings to the ground, draining a river, splitting the earth. It was rare, but Sammy shivers just thinking about what might’ve happened if he’d had a more destructive power. 

Jack nods. “Yeah. She’s a reporter. I used to live in LA, where we grew up, but - it got really hard to be there, and she offered me a place to stay.”

Sammy remembers - he’d worked with Lily for a long time, and then about a year ago, she’d introduced them to her brother, who’d just gotten his freelance job at the paper. Around the same time Void had started showing up on the scene. Sammy had been a bit too distracted at the time to think about  _ why _ Jack had suddenly moved there, but now - “What happened?”

“It was just… I mean, it as a lot of things,” Jack admits. “There was a bad break up, a bad job. Everything just - I needed to get out.” 

“I’m sorry,” Sammy says awkwardly, turning to look at Jack again who just smiles at him. 

“It’s fine, it’s kinda ‘honesty hour’ for me right now,” Jack says with a laugh. “It’s good practice. I’m sure - the guy will have a lot of questions.”

Sammy hums and keeps looking. Some of the papers were older -  _ much  _ older, bound in books or left free. There were elaborate drawings of people and creatures, not unlike old biblical drawings. “What’s all this about?” 

“Oh, that’s - I think that one’s a sixteenth century idea about why mutants exist,” Jack says, getting closer and leaning over Sammy’s shoulder. He’s so close that Sammy can feel the heat of him against his back. “They mostly just understand mutants as a whole back then. There were still some ‘created’ mutants,” he put air quotes around the word, “but the types of things that most often ‘create’ mutants weren’t invented until recently. Accidents of modern science, you know.”

Sammy nods and leans forwards, acting like he’s getting a closer look at the papers rather than getting away from Jack. The way Jack stands up quickly says he didn’t do it subtly enough. “Quickstep was in a lab accident,” Sammy says, because he doesn’t have anything else to say but part of him doesn’t want to leave just yet. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he’s the type to push a button because it says ‘don’t touch’. And that’s - that’s sort of what happened.” 

It isn’t the whole truth - honestly, it’s barely close. Ben had been visiting Emily at work - she didn’t know he was there, and he wandered into a room that he shouldn’t have been able to get into. She’d turned on the machine, not knowing he was there, and then - then Ben disappeared, all his atoms set to moving too fast for a human to perceive. He was legally missing for six months before Emily had managed to figure out what had happened and get him back, and it wasn’t long after that that Ben had met Sammy. It was easier to just gloss over the facts though, especially when he didn’t exactly have Ben’s permission to share. According to Ben the door  _ had _ been labelled ‘don’t enter’, so that at least was mostly true.

“I’d noticed,” Jack confirms with a light laugh. “What about…” he trails off, shaking his head. “Sorry, I shouldn’t ask that. My sister and I, we’re twins, and we started to display powers really early on.”

“Me too,” Sammy admits softly, ignoring the fact that Lily was apparently  _ also _ a mutant for now, because he knew what Jack was going to ask and - there wasn’t a story to tell, but he still found himself wanting Jack to know. Jack is still way too close to Sammy when he turns around in the desk chair and finds his face almost against Jack’s chest. Sammy coughs awkwardly and stands up, moving away. “Just talk to that guy like you were talking to me. Don’t make it a big deal and I’m sure he’ll be fine - he’d be stupid to be mad at you, anyway.”

Jack’s eyebrows furrowed. “What -?”

“The guy you were gonna tell,” Sammy explains. He wonders who this guy could be if Jack seemed to have just forgotten that was the whole reason he was doing this, and he wondered if that said anything about Jack. He didn’t want to think badly of him, but that didn’t look good. “You’ll be fine.” He lets himself disappear and starts to walk out of the room. 

“Let me take you back at least!” Jack protests to the empty room, but Sammy is already gone.

He only lives four blocks from Jack anyway.

FIVE YEARS EARLIER

Sammy had never thought about doing anything with his powers. He’d never felt they were much more than a parlor trick, and one that had only caused him grief for most of his life. One that, if he revealed it to people, just made them walk away. He couldn’t remember a time without them, though he knew they hadn’t started to show until he was a few years old. He’d never even heard what actually happened from his parents, who had spent most of his childhood ignoring it and pretending it wasn’t something that Sammy could do. He stopped talking to his parents when he left for university and they hadn’t tried to reach out again. He got his BA in Journalism and enrolled in a Masters because he didn’t know what else to do, and it was there that he met Ben when he was TA’ing for a second year course. 

Sammy hadn’t really noticed Ben for the first month because Ben was quiet and sat in the back. Since then Sammy had learnt that that was actually the  _ opposite _ of what Ben was like, but there were special circumstances. He  _ really _ met Ben when he came to Sammy’s office hours asking for an extension on an essay.

“I have a doctor’s appointment. I can hand it in the next day,” Ben explained. Sammy noticed even that Ben’s voice had sounded strained, overly-controlled. Like he was just on the edge of losing it. “I just -” he took a deep, unsteady breath and sat down in one of the uncomfortable chairs. “Sorry. Sorry. Sor-” he cut himself off with a shake of his head and his whole body just - blurred, for a second. Sammy almost thought he was mistaken when Ben immediately came back into focus, but Ben cursed. “I didn’t - fuck. I can explain.”

“You’re a mutant,” Sammy guessed, and Ben squeezed his eyes shut and nodded, the motion a small blur as he screwed his face up, visibly trying to retain some modicum of control. “Your control is…”

“It’s bad, I know,” Ben admitted sheepishly. “It’s all… very new. Which is why I have to go to the doctor. Again.”

“Take all the time you need,” Sammy told him, and Ben just smiled.

Sammy didn’t tell Ben about himself until after the semester was over. That’s when everything started, really - Ben had been feeling more settled in his skin, could ignore the pain most days, and he wanted to help. “It feels like fireworks are being set off inside my cells,” Ben had explained quietly one night. “You know when you sit on your foot and get pins and needles? That, times about a thousand, and everywhere. All the time.”

Sammy was pretty sure that Ben had always been a better person than he was, even before Ben got powers, before he could do anything more than give his time. So obviously it was his idea to get them matching suits - at first just Sammy keeping himself invisible and Ben in all black, and then later when Emily made peace with what Ben had chosen she helped them make actual suits.

It had changed everything for Sammy. He’d gone from never properly using the ability he was born with to using it to help people - but also fun. He learnt that he could sneak up on Ben and make him act grumpy, and that Emily would huff and try and think of ways to make it impossible for him to sneak up on her.

PRESENT DAY

INT - SAMMY AND BEN’S APARTMENT - NIGHT

Sammy’s hands are still shaking when he gets into the apartment. He can see Ben on the couch but hasn’t been noticed because he hadn’t opened the door or made himself visible. Emily is in the kitchen and she turns her head curiously towards where he’s standing, and this would normally be when he’d start to appear. Enough to give her a wave, go surprise Ben, make him laugh. But he just - can’t. He closes his eyes and  _ tries _ , trying to pull everything back into focus, but nothing happens. Emily turns back to the stove where Sammy could hear water boiling, clearly assuming she’d thought wrong. She was getting better all the time at being to just tell where Sammy was, but he wonders how often this happened and she  _ was _ wrong.

Sammy falls onto the couch next to Ben, displacing the cushion and causing Ben to turn in his direction. Ben shifts to try and settle himself against Sammy’s side, and Sammy reaches out with an arm to pull Ben against him so he doesn’t end up elbowing Sammy in the stomach. 

“Where’d you go?” Ben asks softly, and Emily turns back towards them quickly, looking like she was about to say something before deciding not to.

“A walk,” Sammy replies. His voice sounds strained even to himself, tense. “I ran into Jack.” It comes out choked, afraid, and Ben looks up questioningly.

“What happened?” Ben asks. “If you… want to talk about you. You don’t have to. I know earlier -”

“He told me…” Sammy trails off, turning his face against the top of Ben’s head. “Void picked me up off the street. And then he was Jack. They’re the same.”

Ben makes a move as if he’s going to look up at Sammy but finds himself locked into the embrace and instead just shifts, getting an arm around Sammy’s middle. It was a bit higher up than where his waist actually was, but good aim considering he still can’t see where Sammy was. “Oh. That’s - huh.”

Sammy lets out a deep breathe. “Yeah. It’s - we talked for a while.”

“Anything you… want to talk to me about?” Ben asks hesitantly. Sammy shifts away on the couch but Ben follows him, not letting go. “Or not,” Ben adds quickly, but he sounds hesitant. 

Sammy knows that Ben just wants to help, just wants to know  _ how _ he can help. He knows Ben is just worried after Sammy walked out, but it’s still - he’s terrified. Sammy pulls away from Ben quickly and Ben lets him stand up this time. 

“Please don’t leave again.” Ben is quiet, looking away from where he knows Sammy is. He sounds just as terrified as Sammy feels.

Sammy notices all at once that Emily is gone and the pot has been moved off the stove. He isn’t sure where she’d gone but she’d left them alone. “It wouldn’t matter,” he says. “If I wanted to - to date Jack. Or not. Because there’s someone else for him.”

Ben looks up at Sammy’s general space. “I don’t think that’s true,” Ben says slowly, “but… Sammy, I love you. You’re my best friend. I just want to know what’s going on.”

Sammy takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. He can barely hear himself when he finally says it. “I’m gay.”

Ben is immediately in front of Sammy, reaching out tentatively. “Okay. Can I - please, can I hug you?”

There’s something caught in Sammy’s throat and he can’t respond, instead reaching out and taking Ben’s hand, reeling him in so that Ben falls against his chest. Immediately Ben hugs him tightly, pressing the side of his face against Sammy’s chest. “I love you,” Ben says. 

Sammy closes his eyes and presses his face against the top of Ben’s head again. “I love you, too.”

INT - NEWSROOM - DAY 

“Good morning!” Jack says happily, putting a cup next to Sammy’s elbow on his desk, causing Sammy to jump. 

It’s just like every other time he’d seen Jack at work, obviously, but there was something inexplicably different, too. Sammy could tell that Ben was trying not to spy on them from the next desk over, and he stares resolutely down at the coffee cup without making any move to pick it up. “Good morning.”

Jack looks a bit confused but doesn’t leave. “How are you?”

Sammy meets his eyes for a second before quickly looking down at the coffee again, moving his elbow away from it slightly. “Good. Bit busy today.”

Jack pauses and takes a sip of his coffee, looking a bit on edge and Sammy  _ knows _ it’s because of him - or maybe Apparition? - but he still can’t look up at Jack. “I guess I’ll leave you to it then,” Jack says, sounding cheerful. “Do you still want to get lunch today? I still have those pictures…”

“Maybe,” Sammy answers hesitantly. “I have a lot of work to do today. Deadlines and all; I’ll let you know, okay?”

He finally looks up at Jack for real and sees that Jack looks - not upset, exactly, but uneasy. His voice is still cheerful when he speaks, though. “Alright. I’ll see you later!”

Sammy lets out a breathe when Jack walks away and collapses backwards into his desk chair, letting it roll a few inches dramatically. 

“You have to get lunch with him!” Ben whispers, leaning over into Sammy’s space, and Sammy flinches. 

“I absolutely don’t.”

Ben raises an eyebrow. “You’re definitely the person he wants to tell. I can feel it. Who else does Jack talk to other than Lily and me?”

Sammy pulls himself back to his desk. “I don’t know what he does outside of work, though. He probably has lots of friends. I know he said it wasn’t another…” Sammy made a vague hand gesture, trying to say the word  _ mutant _ without saying it. “But that doesn’t mean he was talking about a coworker. That he was talking about  _ me _ .”

“He was talking about you,” Ben says decisively. “He’s brought you coffee without asking. Yesterday he offered you  _ his latte _ . I can’t believe I didn’t  _ notice _ !”

Sammy winces. Not just because Ben is loud, even though he is. “He’s just nice.”

“He didn’t bring me a drink even though I mentioned it to him,” Ben points out. “And I didn’t notice a tray or another cup so he didn’t bring one for Lily either.”

“I bring you drinks,” Sammy counters, ignoring most of what Ben had said to try and make some kind of point.

“You  _ know _ that’s different.” Ben sighs and gives Sammy a dramatically forlorn look. “Please text him and get lunch with him. I’m begging.”

Sammy crosses his arms indignantly before pointedly turning back to his computer. “We’ll see.”

Sammy didn’t text Jack back. Or at least didn’t text a  _ confirmation _ \- Ben hoped that Sammy communicated something to Jack, who’d looked so disappointed when Sammy had said he wasn’t sure. Sammy just sat resolutely at his desk when Ben got up to go meet Emily for the lunch date they’d planned when Ben had thought Sammy was also going out, so Ben grabs him by the arm and starts to pull him with him.

Sammy rolls his eyes and lets Ben get him standing, something he wouldn’t have been able to do without Sammy wanting to be brought along. If Emily’s surprised to see Sammy when they get down to the lobby, she hides it beautifully and just smiles at the two of them. “Did you guys choose a place for us?” she asks cheerfully, immediately including Sammy in the plans, and Ben feels his chest warm up as he beams back at her.

“I was thinking we’d check out that new Indian place!” Ben says cheerfully, looking over at Sammy just as he scrunches up his nose. “C’mon what’s wrong with that?” He leans in towards Sammy and can hear him muttering to himself but can’t make out the words. “ _ Please _ .” Ben pokes Sammy in the ribs, making him jump and glare at Ben.

“It’s spicy,” Sammy mutters.

Emily covers her mouth to hide her laughter. “We’ll get you extra naan, let’s go.”

Sammy pouts but trails behind Ben as they leave. Emily catches Ben’s eye and gives him a questioning look, which is fair because he didn’t mention bringing Sammy before even though he knew she wasn’t upset with him about it. 

During lunch, Sammy was quiet. Ben tried to get him to talk with them but he mostly kept to himself, eating the butter chicken he’d ordered with much more bread and rice than sauce

“Hey, Emily,” Sammy says out of the blue, turning to look at the two of them across the table. “There was something -”

Before he could finish the sentence, the windows of the restaurant broke inwards.

There aren’t sitting too close to the windows but the restaurant isn’t big. Ben immediately covers Emily, trying to urge her under the table until they knew what was happening, and in the confusion he lost track of Sammy. People were screaming things, looking out the windows, but Ben was focused on Emily until he felt a hand on his shoulder. 

“I’m right here,” Sammy says softly. “I don’t have my suit so I’m just going to look around like this. Call me in a few minutes.”

“Can you wait for me?” Ben asks, and he hates how scared his voice sounds but he hates the idea of Sammy being alone more. 

“It’ll be fine, no one can see me. There’s nothing more discreet than that.” Ben could hear the reassuring smile in Sammy’s voice but he still twisted his mouth in displeasure. 

“Okay. Five minutes and I’ll be out there,” Ben says.

Sammy’s hand leaves his shoulder.

EXT. - STREET - DAY

Sammy carefully steps over the windowsill, avoiding the shards of glass sticking out. At first, he can’t see anything immediately that caused the explosion, even though the street shows signs of it. The cars are pushed onto the sidewalks, their windows broken and the metal warped; street signs are bent or broken; even the pavement beneath his feet was cracked, heat radiating off of it. 

And then he saw… something. Down the street, almost so far that Sammy couldn’t see it, was a black ball, almost like a cartoon bomb but shiny and metallic, floating in the air a few feet off the ground. Sammy looked around, seeing no one - no one coming out of the buildings, no one coming to help or investigate, and he started to walk towards it. He watched it fall to the ground, almost like it was in slow motion - drifting from it’s spot until it came to rest on the ground. 

There was a pressure in Sammy’s head almost immediately, even though he was still over fifty feet away. It  _ hurt _ and Sammy had to squeeze his eyes shut, stumbling and just barely keeping himself upright. Then, heat - worse than being in the full summer sun, worse than anything Sammy had ever experienced. It was more than being in front of an open flame - it was  _ being _ an open flame. 

Then, finally, the shockwave. Sammy was knocked off his feet and felt his back hit the wall of a building and pain exploded down his spine as he slumped over onto the ground.

It felt like he might just -

fade away. 

INT - RANGOLI INDIAN RESTAURANT - DAY

Ben starts to worry after two minutes.

He’d started to worry immediately, of course, but exactly two minutes after Sammy’s hand leaves his shoulder he  _ really _ starts to worry. 

“Ben,” Emily says, voice firm and soft. The restaurant is almost too quiet - after the initial panic, people are laying low, unable to leave but unable to do anything else, either. 

Ben looks at her and realizes his hands - his arms - his whole body is shaking just slightly. And he’s gripping her shoulder, body partially covering hers under their knocked over table. “I’m sorry,” he says quickly, letting go and moving away from her. As much as he doesn’t want there to be space between them, he wants less to be the one who’s causing her discomfort.

“It’s okay, Benny.” She puts a reassuring hand on his arm. “Just - breathe, please.”

Ben takes a deep breath but it doesn’t help. “I have to - I have to go. I have to go help him.”

Emily looks… terrified would be a mild word. Ben wishes, not for the first time, that things were different. That she never had to look terrified for his life. That there was no validity to the emotion. That, despite the fear on her face, he still reached into his jacket and pulled out his mask. 

Before he could pull it on, Emily moved her hand and put it on his cheek. She leaned up and kissed him chastely. “Be safe.”

He nods mutely because he’s never been able to promise her that, as much as he might want to. Ben takes one last look around the restaurant before pulling his mask on and zipping out into the street. 

He went up and down the street, trying to see if he could find Sammy, but there was no one for blocks. More and more shopfronts were destroyed as he moved, more than he expected. At least a hundred businesses blown back in on themselves. 

Ben runs back to the restaurant, the last place he saw Sammy, and starts from there. There’s no sign of movement, either of Sammy visible and slinking through the street or invisible and moving in the debris. There’s just - nothing. 

And then he sees it, off in the distance. A small metal orb resting in the middle of the street. There wasn’t a blast crater, not exactly, but everything around it was pushed back in a circle. He looked and saw another behind him. He zips over to it but it isn’t doing anything, just sitting in the street. 

“Well, well, well,” says a voice that Ben wishes he didn’t recognize instantly. A slow southern drawl, transplanted into New York. “What do we have here?”

“Gunderson,” Ben replies coldly, zipping down the street to be closer to him but leaving a distance. “What did you  _ do _ here?”

“Just a little… experiment. A test drive,” Gunderson explains. “Those little devices you see are from Beauregards’ Lab. The explosion was… an unavoidable side effect. The primary goal was to lure out all the mutants. Seems like your the only one who took the bait.”

_ So Sammy’s safe somewhere _ , Ben realizes. “Seems like it.”

“Have you noticed anything... off in the last ten minutes?” He asks. “You’re the only data point we have, and my scientist friend here is real interested.” Gunderson gestures and - Frickard steps out from behind a car. The guy who’d been arrested at Emily’s lab.  _ Beauregards’ _ Lab. Ben had met him at a Christmas party or something and then seen his face in the news after the arrest.

“I feel peachy,” Ben answers. But - Sammy disappearing, his shaking, it was all normal stress stuff but what if -? “See?” He zipps to the other side of Gunderson, tapping his shoulder before stopping fifty feet behind him. “Doing just fine.”

Gunderson doesn’t turn around even as Frickard whips around to look at Ben. “Don’t you think this conversation would be more civil if you could look me eye to eye?”

“I’m actually good, thanks,” Ben retorts. He’s suddenly distracted by the noise of something… something he can’t identify right away. It’s like scraping or tumbling - like a bunch of change rattling around in the dryer. And it’s coming from behind him. 

Ben turns around to look and only has half a second to react before the metal ball from down the street is rattling towards him faster than he thought would be possible. He zips out of the way, ending up clinging to a window ledge on the second floor of the office building. 

The ball comes to a rest exactly where Ben had just been standing and Ben can almost  _ see _ the pulse it sends out, pushing the cars even further back. Ben feels the edges of it hit him and his hands start to shake, forcing him to let go of the ledge. He stumbles as he hits the ground running, trying to absorb some of the shock, and ends up on the other side of Gunderson again.

Ben realizes immediately that his hands are still shaking and this is very, very bad.  _ Where is everyone else?  _ Ben thinks frantically. Maybe they were - gone like Sammy was. Missing in action. Ben tried to push back the seeping dread at the fact that he still hadn’t seen Sammy anywhere. Instead of any of the things he was thinking, Ben says, “You have  _ got  _ to show me that trick!” Seemingly unfazed banter was something that Ben thought he was good at, but even he could hear the edge to his voice. 

The sound starts up again and this time Ben has more warning, but he doesn’t know what to do. He can’t approach Gunderson - he’s got almost a foot and over a hundred pounds of muscle on Ben - but Gunderson can’t catch him. As long as he stays away from Gunderson and the spheres, he doesn’t get hurt. But someone else might. It’s in the last moment before the sphere hits him that Ben sees Frickard fiddling with his phone and makes a decision.

Ben runs up behind Frickard and grabs his arms. Frickard is about his height and gangly - there’s no weight for him to throw against Ben that Ben couldn’t handle. The phone smashes on the ground and Frickard whines audibly. “C’mon, man, my grandma got that for me!”

Somehow in his mental calculations Ben had forgotten that Frickard was only standing five feet away from Gunderson, so now he stood facing Gunderson with only Frickard between them, and Ben didn’t doubt that Gunderson would tear Frickard to shreds to get what he wanted even though he’d gotten him out of jail. The worst part was, Ben was pretty sure Gunderson didn’t want to kill him, specifically. He doubted Gunderson bothered to learn who the superheroes and the mutants that he opposed were. If he died, he’d just be another dead mutant, and that mattered more to Gunderson than anything else.

Finally Ben heard the distant noise of police. Maybe they’d been kept so long because it  _ was  _ Gunderson, the chief, here. Maybe the calls had finally gotten unignorable. Whatever it was, Ben was glad to hear the sound, but in the moment when he turned his head, Gunderson was gone. It was almost as sudden as Sammy could disappear, but Ben had no doubt that he’d just walked into one of the offices, ready to reappear with the crowds.

It took another few minutes before the police cautiously made their way down the street and found him with Frickard. Ben spotted Officer Troy Krieghauser among them and made eye contact with him before releasing Frickard, causing him to fall, and he zipped away.

He still had to find Sammy.

EXT - STREET - DAY

“Apparition’s gone,” Ben says, the words falling out all in a rush as he practically collapses at Void’s - Jack’s feet. He doesn’t get out of breath from running, not like when he was a kid at the back of the pack during the fitness test, but it feels like his whole chest is on fire now. 

“What,” Jack replies flatly. It isn’t a question, not exactly - and if Ben didn’t know him, didn’t know that he cared about Sammy too, he wouldn’t have noticed the worry in his voice. 

“We were just - and then - he’s just - he’s gone!” Ben stutters, trying to pull himself to his feet and finding it difficult as his body can’t stop trying to go faster, to move, to split in two. He can’t tell in the moment if it’s a side effect of the device or his mounting anxiety.

Jack puts a hand on his shoulder and Ben focuses on it. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, imagines that it’s Sammy’s hand, Sammy telling him ‘Deep breathes, buddy, you’re gonna be fine’. The way he always does. 

“We were at a restaurant,” Ben says slowly. “I was - we were getting lunch. Then everything went to hell and I - I was distracted, and he said he was going to go check everything out, make sure it was okay. Then I got out here and he isn’t - he wasn’t picking up his phone and he isn’t at our apartment and I can’t  _ find him _ .”

“Are you sure he hasn’t just...” Jack makes a motion with his free hand, similar to a small explosion but slower, “and left?”

Ben clenches his jaw. “He wouldn’t leave. Not without saying anything. I know he’s been having a rough time but - he wouldn’t. Not without telling me.”

“Okay,” Jack says, not sound exactly convinced but not disbelieving either. “So he didn’t leave on his own. But he has to be somewhere. What restaurant were you at? Maybe there’s - something, some trace of him.”

Ben takes a deep breath and nods. “Yeah, it was the corner of Fifth and Main.”

Jack nods and waves his hand, causing a dark oval to appear in the air. “After you?”

Ben shakes his head. “You go, I’ll meet you there - I just - I gotta -“ he stops talking, because the vibrating in his body had gotten intense enough that he was sure that Void could feel it under his hand.

Jack nods. “I’ll see you there.” He lets go of Ben’s shoulder and steps through the portal. 

Ben waits for a second, watching the portal close, before he sets off running.

Opening a portal is the hard part. Jack used to do it by accident, when he was a kid. If he didn’t pay enough attention and got bored in class, wished that he was anywhere else - well. It was the reason that he and Lily had had to transfer schools twice in elementary school. It still happened sometimes, but only under extreme circumstances. He kept his powers under lock and key, tried to keep them cut off from any energy they could draw on. It made it hard to make the portals, now - he had to pull back just a little bit, just enough to get it to work but keep the lid on tight so it wouldn’t turn… catastrophic. Even though it had never gotten that bad, Jack had visions in his head of opening a portal in the first floor of a building and making it fall to the ground. 

But when Quickstep told him that Apparition was  _ missing _ … it came easier than it had in awhile. Without thinking, Jack waved a hand and a dark circle appeared in front of him. He barely felt it, the pull and the strain he normally dealt with were completely gone. He tried not to think about it, because he was needed and he didn’t have time. So he stepped through.

The images swirled around him, turning quickly into a blur until he managed to slow them down, focusing on each image individually. He sorted through them the way someone would flip through playing cards looking for a specific one - quick but focused. He found the street he was looking for and as he focused more on that image, focused on that door, he saw a blur that he assumed was Quickstep pull into frame. Even though the blur stopped moving it didn’t solidify. 

He grabbed hold of the image and stepped through the door.

It takes Ben a few seconds to settle down when he sees Jack step onto the street. “I last saw him over there,” Ben says, pointing towards the restaurant. There still weren’t many people on the street, and it had been about fifteen minutes since Ben had left Frickard with the cops. They had barricades set up at the ends of the affected area, keeping people from wandering in, and there were officers leading civilians out of the ruined buildings. Ben hadn’t seen Emily, so he could only hope that she was heading back to the apartment.

He zips over to the front of the shop and Jack runs, at a normal human speed, to catch up. “I don’t know what window he left by. I was - distracted, and he’s invisible!”

Ben knows that he was being defensive, and he also knows that Jack isn’t going to blame him for Sammy’s disappearance. He just can’t help it. 

“Is there any… signs? Any way that we could tell where he is without just… falling over him?” Jack asks, looking around cautiously like something would jump out at him. 

It was a fair concern, Ben realizes, because he never actually explained to Jack what had happened. He summarized it as quickly as he could without letting on that he kind of knew Frickard as a civilian, and they split up to move in opposite directions down the street.

Ben zips as quickly as he could back and forth to cover all the ground he could, then back up Jack’s side when he doesn’t find anything. After everything, Ben is surprised that it doesn’t take long before he sees something moving in the rubble. He runs over and his hands hit  _ something _ just as Sammy’s hand flickers into view and then out again.

“Ben?” Sammy groans, his face flickering and then gone again. “Something - I -”

“It’s fine, it’s okay,” Ben says quickly. He pulls off his gloves and finds Sammy’s shoulder, trying to remember what they told him in First Aid about patting down a person to find blood. He realizes all at once he doesn’t know if Sammy’s blood is invisible, too, but he hopes that he’ll feel it - or that he won’t. “I think you just got hit, but you’re - well. You’re alive. I’m alive.”

“What happened?” Sammy asks, voice muddled and rough.

Ben moves on to his other arm, then starts to feel his torso without moving him too much. “I’ll tell you later. Can you - could you stand up?”

A few shots of colour flicker over Sammy’s body - his shoulder, part of his stomach, his knee - and Ben can feel him moving under his hands before he stops. “I think I have a concussion. I’m gonna need a hand.”

“Is he there?” Jack asks, appearing at Ben’s shoulder out of nowhere and making Ben jolt.

“Yeah,” Ben confirms. “Can you - Sa - Apparition, I’m gonna try to help you up.”

Jack puts a hand on his shoulder. “I can do it. It’ll probably be easier for him if he needs someone to lean on.”

Ben grimaces even though Jack can’t see it and nods. 

“Don’t I get a say?” Sammy says, almost like it’s a joke but he’s too tired to make it sound like one. His face flickers into view again, just for a split second, but Ben sees the moment that  _ Jack _ sees. His whole body stills. And then his shoulder drops and he relaxes, reaches towards where Ben’s hands are.

“Let’s get you home,” Jack says softly -  _ too _ soft. Ben’s only heard that tone from Emily when he’s had a day so bad he has to tell her. Jack touches just above Ben’s hand and pushes his hand until it hooks over Sammy’s shoulder. He takes his other hand, trails it through the air until he finds something and then appears to slide it under Sammy’s knees. Ben moves out of the way quietly and knows that it says  _ something  _ that Sammy’s been silent through this whole thing, and he isn’t sure that it’s something good. “Sammy?” he says quietly, his voice hesitant. 

Sammy doesn’t reply and Jack looks over at Ben. “Can you check his head? I don’t -”

Ben nods and reaches over, makes sure first that Sammy isn’t bleeding from a head wound - he isn’t - and then makes sure his neck isn’t limp, which ends up meaning he tilts it towards Jack’s shoulder. “I guess the cat’s outta the bag, huh?”

“And I guess you know about me, too,” Jack replies awkwardly. “I was… I was planning on telling Sammy.”

“I know. You still should - talk to him, at least.” Ben takes a deep breath, moving his hand from Sammy’s head. “You, uh - you know where we live, right?”

Jack nods and a portal opens in front of him.

INT - SAMMY AND BEN’S APARTMENT - AFTERNOON

Emily is, thankfully, waiting at the apartment when they get in. Ben can tell that she’s startled by Void’s whole all-black look, but she doesn’t say anything, focusing instead on Sammy, who was still flickering in and out in patches as he slept.

Jack leaves as soon as he sets Sammy down on his bed. Ben tries to get him to stay but he refuses, so Ben crawls into Sammy’s bed with him, puts his head on Sammy’s chest just to make sure he’s breathing, his heart’s beating. Emily comes in a few times to make sure they’re ok and Ben pulls her into bed with them, letting her curl around his back. She reaches over him and puts her hand on Sammy’s stomach, trying to reassure herself that he’s okay, too.

Sammy wakes up slowly. He’d been stirring occasionally in his sleep so Ben couldn’t tell the difference between that and  _ waking up _ when he can’t see Sammy’s face. It isn’t until Sammy’s hand was gripping him back, tightening against the back of his shirt, and Sammy makes a few pained noises that Ben was sure he was awake.

“Shh, it’s okay,” Ben says quickly. “You got hurt but you’re home, it’s okay.”

Sammy groans. “What…?”

“I don’t know,” Ben admits. “When we found you, you were unconscious.”

Sammy stills under his hands. “We?”

Ben bites his lip and curses himself for letting that slip. “Me and Jack. Sammy, I couldn’t  _ find you _ . You weren’t anywhere! I needed help.”

“Did he… see anything?” Sammy asks hesitantly and Ben thinks about lying. He’s never lied to Sammy, not really, not about anything important, but he thinks about it now because he knows Sammy won’t like the answer. Sammy needs to rest more, needs to get his control back in check because he’s still flickering but it isn’t stable, and knowing the answer isn’t going to help any of that happen.

But Ben can’t lie. “Yes.”

Sammy sucks in a breath sharply and Ben wishes more than anything that he could see Sammy’s face, could get a read on what he was thinking more than form the tension that hadn’t left his body. “I’m going back to sleep. Call me in sick for work tomorrow morning.”

The first thing Sammy registers when he wakes up properly is pain. A dull ache pulsing in the back of his skull and all down his spine, making him screw his eyes shut for a second before he can bear to open them. When he does it’s so dark that he wonders if he’s got something on his face or his eyes are still closed. He brings a hand up in front of him and doesn’t feel anything, so it must be night. He takes a deep breath in and feels the pain spread slowly through his ribs and Ben shuffles next to him but doesn’t wake up. Sammy doesn’t bother pushing his control - he can feel it, like a blanket that’s fallen off the bed. If he strains he knows that he could grab it with the tips of his fingers and pull it over him, but he might fall over in the process. So he doesn’t. He just settles into the bed and tries to fall back to sleep.

The first thing Sammy notices when he wakes up again is that Ben is gone, the warm and steady weight at his side, and the second is that the sun is up and streaming into his window. He squeezes his eyes shut again, to block out the pain but also to regain a small amount of darkness, before he can open them. There’s a glass of water on the nightstand which he grabs immediately and chugs down. He doesn’t have long to himself before Ben’s walking back in with a cup of coffee and an all too familiar bottle of pain killers. 

“That better not be for you,” Sammy says. His voice comes out hoarse and painful sound and he coughs involuntarily.

Ben freezes and looks at the space where Sammy’s head could be. “How’re you feeling?” he asks, holding the mug out for Sammy grab, which he does gratefully. 

Sammy takes a grateful sip of his coffee and closes his eyes, letting Ben climb in next to him. “Everything… hurts. What happened yesterday?”

“It’s… it’s kind of hard to explain,” Ben starts, sitting on the bed next to Sammy. “Remember the lab accident at Emily’s work earlier in the week? The guy who was arrested was there, Greg Frickard. And he was working with - or, I guess, for - Chief Gunderson. I’m not really… clear on the details. Gunderson got away but they re-arrested Frickard, I think, or at least I hope. But I had to leave because - because I had to find you. And I couldn’t, so I went to Jack, and - I’m sorry,” Ben finishes soberly. “I should have realized you wouldn’t be wearing your mask, I shouldn’t have gone to get Jack but I was just - so worried, I wasn’t thinking straight.”

Sammy swallows down the panic he can feel rising in his chest, knowing that he would have disappeared during the conversation if he had been able to become fully visible in the first place. “It’s okay,” he says, even though it’s kind of the opposite of what he feels right now but making sure Ben calms down is his priority. “You did what you had to do.”

Ben nods mutely and lays his head on Sammy’s chest. “Still. I know - you should have been able to make that choice.”

It hits Sammy suddenly, all at once, exactly what he’s lost. The ability to tell Jack in his own way, if he’d ever gotten the guts to do it, but maybe Jack’s friendship, too. Jack had told him his secret and Sammy had just  _ known _ and not said anything. He’d crossed paths with Jack at work and never said anything, and now Jack would know. Jack would probably hate Sammy for keeping this from him when he knew Jack could take care of himself and wouldn’t freak out.

Sammy takes another deep, steadying breath and tries to push all the thoughts aside, focusing on Ben. “It’s okay,” he repeats, and he hopes that Ben believes him.

INT - OFFICE BUILDING - DAY

It’s surprisingly easy for Sammy to avoid Jack, who doesn’t even show up at the office for the three days following the incident. That isn’t too weird - Jack’s a freelancer, sometimes coming in only once a week, and even then Sammy hasn’t seen him  _ every _ time he’s come in in the past. It’s possible that that’s what’s happening, they just aren’t crossing paths, but then Sammy remembers the coffees Jack brought him and knows that isn’t it.

And then he does see Jack coming from the other end of the hallway - he’s facing sideways, talking to someone just out of view, so he hasn’t spotted Sammy. Sammy, who had all these big ideas of talking to Jack when he next saw him, explaining himself maybe, who actually runs in the other direction and ducks into the men’s room by his desk. He only manages to not bang his head against the stall door by thinking about how gross it is.

It goes on like that for a few days. Suddenly Jack  _ is _ in the office seemingly constantly, but Sammy gets really good at ducking into closets and bathrooms and around corners. He knows the building better than Jack does, and has that at least. Ben doesn’t mention anything to him, so Sammy has to wonder whether or not he’s even noticed.

A full week after what happened, Sammy narrowly avoids Jack’s eyes by ducking into a janitor’s closet, but then before he knows what’s going on arms are grabbing him around his shoulders and pulling him backwards into the shelves. The closet is dark to start with but there’s something  _ different _ about the darkness he falls into, and Sammy struggles as he’s pulled in, tumbling into the swirling and inky darkness, but just as soon as he starts falling he just - stops. The arms around him let go and Sammy stumbles, looking around and finding Jack standing nearby in his street clothes looking - sheepish, but there’s also something else there that Sammy doesn’t want to pinpoint. Something he might call disappointment if he had to.

“Sorry,” Sammy mutters breathlessly, because it’s the only thing he can think of in the moment, still disoriented from the shift but needing Jack to  _ know _ .

Jack huffs. “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have just grabbed you like that. But - you’ve been avoiding me, and I saw where you went this time, and I just - I couldn’t help it.”

Sammy cringes. “I deserved it. I - yeah. Sorry about that.”

“Don’t - apologize, I don’t need that,” Jack says, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. It’s almost comical but Sammy doesn’t feel like laughing. “I just - did I do something?”

Sammy looks up questioningly, finally standing up properly. “No?”

“Then - why? I thought it was because I saw when you didn’t want me to,” Jack explains, sounding frustrated. “What was it?”

“I thought you would be mad at me,” Sammy admits. 

Jack looks genuinely confused at that which is less comforting than Sammy wants it to be. “For what?”

“For not telling you when you told me?” Sammy sits heavily on the half wall surrounding the rooftop, looking suspiciously at the ground far below them before deciding it’s probably fine.

Jack walks over and sits next to him, leaving a few inches of space between them. It’s much too close but Sammy still wants him to be closer. “Well, I’m not mad about that.”

“I still should have,” Sammy says quietly, ducking his head. “I’m sorry that I didn’t. I wanted to.”

“Why didn’t you, then?” Jack asks, looking over at him, but Sammy can’t quite meet his eyes. 

“I - it’s...” Sammy sighs. “You’re kind of amazing? I - before, there was Void, who was just this attractive guy I didn’t know, and there was Jack, my coworker and friend who I thought I knew pretty well. And I was maybe a little... upset that you hadn’t told me, even though that’s hypocritical, but mostly I was scared. Because I’m - I was scared you’d be disappointed in knowing the whole picture of  _ me _ when the whole of you is so - so amazing.”

“I’m not disappointed,” Jack replies softly, the side of his hand brushing Sammy’s knee, and Sammy realizes that Jack had moved closer while Sammy was speaking. His shoulder brushes Sammy’s and their arms rest against each other. “I’m not mad you didn’t tell me, either. Everyone has to take their time with it, I get that it just wasn’t time yet. It’s - it’s a lot. I only told Apparition because I was sure that the name  _ Jack Wright _ wouldn’t mean anything to him, even if he’d seen my pictures. I guess I was wrong, but it made it easier, so I can’t imagine trying to tell - to tell you, honestly, knowing everything. It would have been a lot more intimidating.”

Sammy looks over at him and realizes that Jack is staring at him with an expression that Sammy can’t - doesn’t want to - place. “Thanks.”

“Just - one question,” Jack starts with a lopsided smile, “you think I’m attractive?”

Sammy laughs and rolls his eyes, hoping that Jack can’t tell how red his face is. “You know you are.”

“Yeah, sure,” Jack brushes off, “but -  _ you _ think I am?” 

Jack is still looking at him but he looks - nervous, maybe hopeful, and Sammy feels himself smile a little. “Yeah.”

“Good,” Jack replies. “It would be weird to do this if you didn’t.” 

And then Jack kisses him. 

INT - SAMMY AND BEN’S APARTMENT - EVENING

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Emily says reassuringly, but she doesn’t get in the way of the hole Ben is going to pace into the apartment floor.

“I know,” Ben replies. It isn’t the first time he’s said it in the last hour and he doesn’t believe himself more now than he did earlier, and Emily clearly doesn’t either. “I know he texted and said he’d been home by six, and I know it isn’t even six yet, but - I don’t know! It could be anything. What if someone stole his phone and is delaying me? What if he was trying to send a coded message and I just couldn’t figure it out? What if he’s in danger?”

Emily stepped over and put her hands on his shoulders, digging her fingers into them slightly to ground him. “Benny,” she says slowly. “He’s okay. He’s an adult and he doesn’t  _ actually _ have to tell you where he is twenty-four-seven, but I’m sure that as soon as he’s home he will.”

Ben takes a deep breath and puts his hands on hers. She turns her palms up and links their fingers together, letting their hands drop between them. “I know.”

The door opens and Ben springs away from Emily, rushing over to find Sammy looking like he was trying to slink in. He wasn’t invisible, though, so Ben doesn’t feel too bad about catching him. “Sammy!” 

Sammy cringes slightly at being caught and then smiles tentatively at Ben. “Hey. How was work?”

“Where did you go?” Ben asks as Sammy closes the door behind him and puts his back against it.

“I, uh - I was talking to Jack,” Sammy says awkwardly. “He… pulled me aside in the afternoon and then we went back to his apartment. To talk.”

The worry that Ben had been feeling had melted away when he saw that Sammy was safe so he felt like he could tease, a little bit. He raised his eyebrow skeptically. “Talk?”

Sammy blushes bright red, proving Ben’s point. “Yes.  _ Just _ talk.”

Ben bounces on his heels expectantly. “ _ And _ ?”

“It’s - we… we reached an understanding,” Sammy says slowly, not looking directly at Ben.

“Is  _ that  _ what the kids are calling it these days?”

Sammy glares at him but there’s no heat to it. “We talked but - maybe we’re dating. I think.”

Ben feels his eyes widen and tries to contain his excitement because Sammy is still looking a little standoffish. “How can you not be sure?”

“Well it’s new!” he defends. “We didn’t use that word, exactly, but the implication was there, okay? And we’re going… on a date tomorrow.”

Sammy has to cover his ears from the sound of Ben’s excitement. 

EPILOGUE

INT - JACK’S BEDROOM - MORNING

Sammy stays the night at Jack’s apartment over a month after they start dating. It’s an accident - Sammy had only slept four hours the previous night because he and Ben had been keeping watch on a warehouse that the mob was supposed to be using. Nothing had happened, which made the lack of sleep all the more frustrating, so when Sammy went to Jack’s after work he just ended up - falling asleep.

He wakes up with a start, pushing himself up quickly and trying to force himself into visibility. Even though logically Sammy knows that Jack had seen him invisible before, there was something completely different about the way he couldn’t help it when he was asleep, and he imagined it was different to see someone across from you disappear than it was to wake up and find an invisible shape in your bed.

But Jack doesn’t let Sammy go far, tightening his arms gently and encouraging Sammy to lie back down. “It’s okay,” Jack says quietly. “I don’t want to get up yet.”

Sammy sighs and lets himself lay down, turning his face away from Jack as he felt the colour returning to his skin. “Sorry.”

“About what?” Jack asks. 

“I know that it must be weird,” Sammy says slowly. “To wake up and see that I’m not here.”

One of Jack’s hands comes up to Sammy’s hair and he pushes his fingers through it. “You  _ are  _ here.” 

Sammy doesn’t know what to say to that and so he just doesn’t say anything, letting them sit in the quiet morning a little bit longer. 

Jack breaks the silence. “It’s kinda cool. You disappear all at once but I’ve never seen how you reappear. Is it difficult?”

Sammy shrugs, knowing that enough of him is visible for the movement to track. “It just takes concentration. It isn’t… natural for me, but I’m used to it.”

“Does it hurt?” Jack asks, suddenly sounding worried, so Sammy pats his side reassuringly.

“Nope. Just have to think about it a little.”

Jack lets out a breath. “I wouldn’t want you to - to make yourself uncomfortable because you think I’ll like  _ that _ better. I like you no matter what. I might be a little bit in love with you, for the record, so the last thing I want is for you to hurt yourself just to fit what you think I want from you. I just want you.”

“Oh.” Sammy flexes his fingers on Jack’s side, patches of them visible but his fingertips are emptily pressing against Jack. “I might love you, too.”

“Good. ‘Cause I think you’re kinda stuck with me.” Jack reaches down to grab the hand that’s pressed on his side, bringing it up to kiss the back of his hand, and Sammy can see his face through the spaces. 


End file.
